The Last Stand is an addon project for the Sins of a Solar Empire, aiming to provide additional and original content, depth and challenge to the game, including three new races, new gameplay elements and tactical gadgets such as mines, interdiction abilities, deployable starbases, new ship classes and more.
As the name says, this mini mod will add voluminous explosions, critical hit and persistent damage effects to your game. This is a stand-alone version, to be used with an unmodified game.
Just to let any potential downloaders know (I don't think it says this anywhere else on the site): The developer said that this mod should be compatible with the 1.09 beta version, but he hasn't tested it personally.
That is correct, although since all the mod changes are particle files it *should* be compatible. You can easily test this by installing the standalone version with your Sins Beta and see if it works. If it doesn't, simply delete the folder. ;)
Unfortunately, mod support is not yet available for beta versions, so it is not possible for me to test the mod with them. I will ensure, however, that the mini-mod is fully compatible with the official version 1.1 of SoaSE when it comes out.
wat does the mod do exactly?
As it says in the description, it will change ship and building explosions into true 3D affairs (vanilla ones are 2D effects for the most part), adding new damage effects, chunks being blown off and scattered in an explosion and so on.